Story Highlights

NEW YORK — The United States Tennis Association may be looking to an unlikely source to help solve the unyielding issue of rain delays: NASCAR.

The Air Titan 2.0 is a track-drying technology that uses compressed air and heat, which NASCAR implemented this season.

The device is attached to the back of a car that drives slowly over a wet track to make it safe to drive following rain.

Now, the USTA may be considering a similar strategy.

"I was just out with the United States Tennis Association because they have a similar issue with all those courts," NASCAR chairman Brian France said Friday at a conference with sports editors. "When it rains, they need about 20 or 30 minutes to dry their courts. This technology is going to have major ramifications. We always believed that it would. It's a green solution.

"To give you a little perspective on that, we can clean the area the size of a football field in 20 seconds with this technology, which gives you a certain feel of why the tennis guys are intrigued to know more about this technology."

So far this season, NASCAR has used it with success, as five of the first seven races were delayed by rain.

"Losing our audience is one of the reasons we came up with the Air Titan system," France said. "It saved us in instances like Daytona this year where we would have not competed, but of course ended up getting the event in."